Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)s have revolutionized the computing industry by providing visually appealing and easy to use interfaces to various applications. Traditional GUI design eschews the use of text-based interfaces such as command lines in favor of menus and buttons. Limited screen real-estate along with the use of visually appealing graphic icons means that screen real-estate for buttons and other controls are reserved for the most commonly used functions. Other functions are embedded in menus and other dialogs.
Accessing functions in menus and dialogs can be tedious for users. First, a user must find where the function resides within a maze of menus. Repeating this step multiple times can be time consuming over the course of a day. To enable quick use of various functions, applications often have short cut keys. Short cut keys are key combinations that allow for quickly executing a function or changing a setting. For example, pressing the control key and the ‘b’ key at the same time may change a font to bold in a word processing application. These keys quickly enable fast selection of functions in the application, however, users find it difficult to remember the various key combinations and their functions.